13 October 2018

Scattershots – 13oct18 (updated 17oct18)

George Rebane

Liberal Union columnist Darrell Berkheimer has been delving into the availability of housing in Nevada County. Today (13oct18 here) he reports that we don’t have enough "affordable housing" in these parts to attract low income families and wage earners, and also make the county more attractive and welcoming to our already large homeless population - “paths to affordable housing must be provided (the homeless) as well as others wishing to live here.” A good part of the blame he puts on those stupid developers who can’t figure out where the profits are, and “continue to place emphasis on single-family homes for what has been termed the ‘nuclear family’” of which there are precious few left in the country, and apparently of which we already have too many in Nevada County. He either doesn’t understand the notion of low-cost housing viz affordable housing, and/or the regulatory and cost hurdles that developers must negotiate to build anything in our county. But, in spite of these problems, Mr Berkheimer does think that the county should become proactive in going after developers in the attempt to convince them to plow through the process anyway, and take the risk in building marginally profitable (if that) affordable housing. The wonders of a progressive mind at work making Nevada County safe for San Francisco values.

Ms Heather MacDonald, political analyst and author at the Manhattan Institute, was interviewed (13oct18 WSJ) regarding her new book The Diversity Delusion. Ms MacDonald is one of those refreshingly independent thinkers who, after law school at Stanford, had to wend her way to epiphany by spending her early professional years through clerking for Justice Stephen Reinhardt, volunteering for the Natural Resources Council, and working at the EPA. She laments what the progressives and other flavors of the Left have done to demolish undergraduate education, especially in the fields of western civilization. Specifically, she highlights the bloom of lowered standards and newly established majors “focused on identity and oppression” with freshly minted majors, like ‘Social Justice’, coming in the burgeoning field of neo-Marxism. She sees all of this as leading to a final national confrontation – “One of the great achievements of Western European civilization was to move beyond tribalism, to nation-states, to concepts of citizenship that transcend tribal identity, and we’ve been playing with fire for the last 40 years in thinking we can keep this ethnic warfare thing at a low simmer rather than a hot boil.”

The Union’s Editorial Board advises every franchised citizento ‘Get educated and vote’ (13oct18) – “everyone who can legally vote should.” What the good souls at The Union don’t help the reader with is how to get educated in a manner that enables critical thinking about the diametrically opposite prescriptions and policies offered by today's strong ideologues, some obviously tinged and others in more subtle ways. As many scholars and thinkers (see previous entry) now tell us, the ability to think critically is no longer taught nor even possible by graduates from most of our colleges and almost all of our high schools, simply because they no longer have to learn the knowledge base which enables such thought should even the tools for it be available.

Nevada County’s high school test scores are a disaster. Only our local liberal contingent is satisfied, since generating generations of such graduates over the last 40 years is just the planned grist for their voting mill. When others lament this educational deficit, the local liberals point to the Ghidotti Early College High School which ranked #1 in the state tests – why? Because they have a total of only 163 self-selected smart students of which 44 took the cited test. For the rest we have dropping scores that reveal one of three students is below grade level in reading, and more than two thirds are below grade level in math. And believe it or not, statewide Nevada County is above average. Talk about California leading the nation – to where?

[17oct18 update] What’s happening to destroy STEM and STEM-related education and research in America is even worse than I have been tracking over the recent years. NSA and NIH, originally launched by Congress to keep us in the lead in physical and health sciences, have now become institutes of identity equalization to satisfy the progressives social justice goals. H/T to Russ Steele (see his 506pm comment below) for pointing out the latest report on this disaster-in-progress as reported in the City Journal (here).

Darrell Berkheimer: ‘Whether we like it or not, we’ve got to do it’
The title for this miserable scribble says it all.
Really, folks - is this this sort of country you want? Why should builders and developers be forced to build something they don't want to? Should chefs be forced to cook certain kinds of food? Should writers be forced to write certain kinds of books or articles?
If the high priced homes Darrell decries sell, then it would appear they were needed and if they fail to sell or sell very slowly, then that type of home will no longer commonly be built. The market will take care of the issue. If a person can't afford to live in Nevada County then they will have to look elsewhere. You have a right to live where you choose, but you have no right to force others to provide you with housing.
The best line was: "Appropriate tracts of land need to be identified..."
Ah yes - 'appropriate'. I know all of my friends still living in Nevada County will tell you that sort of land isn't anywhere near where they live. And you can bet it isn't anywhere near where Darrell lives.
Funny that.

There are many reasons we will never see what the author desires here in Nevada County. Commenter Judith Lowry is a prime example of why. Too much risk in a system that allows a person with one postage stamp the ability to stop a project of any size. The people of California have spoken at all the hearings. The state legislature and Governor have spoken with the thousands of laws and regulations added on a home or new business. Look at the process and ask yourself why would you want to put yourself through it and risk your money, for what? My contention has always been that if your property is compliant with the General Plan of your jurisdiction and the zoning is being complied with, then the government should get out of the way and the NIMBY's detoothed. But that is not going to happen. So the only structures that get built are the high end. Never again will California see affordable housing until they look in the mirror and see the cause and change the rules..

I'd just love to see Darrell Burkheimer attempt to build a new dwelling in California.

Todd? Roughly how much does it cost just to break ground? Add in the additional cost of code-legal housing given modern rules.

The underlying problem is that this kind of knee jerk economic policy is a kind of social Lysenkoism. Magically build housing and jobs will appear. 'High density' is superior since, God knows, there isn't any empty property in the county. I realize that it's easy to pick apart an editorial, but this is a guy with no skin in the game.

re:Nevada County school test scores. Obviously that can be gamed somewhat. Skim off the better students. Test the better students within your school. It becomes a bit meaningless over time.

My take is that if I had a K-12 student, I'd bundle them off to the best private school I could and simply not care about the fuss and fury. It would be a pleasure to not think about CalSTRS, pushing down the better students in order to bring up the inferior ones, political programming of the kids, etc. The current industrial-school complex will always think about what is best for itself rather than for it's clients.

Ghidotti is taking cherrypicked kids and doing a decent job with them... and I suspect a big part of the decent job is that the teachers (at least beyond the 9th grade) are qualified community college instructors with Masters (any PhDs?) in the subject they are teaching, as opposed to a watered down BA at the standard high school teaching slot.

The sad part of Ghidotti are the hollowed out comprehensive high schools left behind. A tragedy. And people who move into the area too late to apply to an entering 9th grade cohort are generally locked out of the "good" school.

The FUE is mighty proud his kid got into Ghidotti. Its diversity is there for all to see: 86% white. And only 10% eligible for free or reduced price lunches! Why even think about a private academy when you've got one with bragging rights for free!

Scenes, I don't have a dollar amount but just in the last couple of years we have seen the state pass laws adding many thousands to the costs. I built a house for $40 per square foot in 1977 and I am told it is now $200.

The Democrats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, voiced concerns that Clinton’s presence would threaten the party’s chances at retaking the House and Senate in 2018, forcing Clinton to keep campaigning to a minimum and only appearing at low-key fundraisers.
“Hillary Clinton is the kiss of death and she represents the part of the Democratic Party that led to historic losses and that elected Donald Trump president,” one leading Democratic strategist told the Washington Examiner.

“Democrats don’t want her to campaign for them because everywhere she goes she carries this stench of death and is the only political figure in America that is less popular than Donald Trump,” the strategist added. “That’s a real testament to her.”
“When I think of people who have been part of our push to retake the House, I just don’t think of them at all. I think it’s a very good thing that they’re not being visible. It wouldn’t help our candidates,” a House Democrat said.
But despite objections from some Democrats, Clinton continues to make her presence known in the media.

To add to the 'low cost housing' ha ha, let's be honest and admit that most people don't really want that. If you've laid out a bundle for your home, do you want low cost housing within 10 miles of your house? If you're the city, county or state govt - do you want low cost (low tax rate) housing? If you're the bank or realtor, do you want low cost housing? Housing is the biggest driver of our economy and everyone involved professionally gets their cut as a percentage of the selling price. Why would they want to lower the cost of housing? Low cost housing means less taxes for the govt and more people who need govt assistance.
California brags about their economy but it's mostly just the sky high cost of real estate and housing.
The key word, of course, is 'affordable' housing. That is - high cost housing being subsidised so certain selected folks can simply pay a lot less than others for the same abode. And that subsidy drives up the costs of the other houses. Higher final cost, higher loan cost, higher taxes, higher insurance costs - what's not to like?
I remember reading in the Chron back in the 80's about a new 'affordable' housing project just completed. Such and such a cost and so many units. A quick bit of math told me each unit weighed in at around 450K. In the 80's. For po' folk.
And it's just getting worse and worse.
If folks have the 'right' to housing they can afford in Nevada County, do I have the 'right' to a house in Brentwood, Beverley Hills or Pacific Palisades? I guess not.
Funny how that 'rights' racket works.

Is that from some other blog? I wouldn't bother, there's never any action. I think they just want to sit at the cool kids' table.

re: Low cost housing.

Given the incredibly high cost of new construction in California, I would think that the simplest way to provide it in a hurry is simply to more easily allow trailer park zoning. Stick the things a long way from me, but I can see the value. You probably need to put a police substation close by.

It isn't like the local homeless aren't going to just tear up any supplied housing, but there certainly are working poor who could stand an affordable rental. Of course, there's always the brilliant gypsy wagon concept. Just imagine. Gypsy Wagon II, Electric Boogaloo.

I think (not sure) that the tiny house boosters tend to be frustrated architects who feel the need to design something, plus you simply aren't going to get many units/dollar.

Is that from some other blog? I wouldn't bother, there's never any action. I think they just want to sit at the cool kids' table

Yeah....I’ve been avoiding Crabbes blog for the last month or so but dropped in for a look after Todd mentioned the “Feeding Frenzy”.

Pretty weak sauce but Frisch remains willfully ignorant that George is largely correct about “reproduction for increased benefits” California formally ended these constraints in 2017 but there have been ways around the federal restrictions almost since the day they enacted!

"...I would think that the simplest way to provide it in a hurry is simply to more easily allow trailer park zoning."
scenes!!! Dude - don't you know that causes more tornadoes?
OK - snark off - but really - trailer parks???
In Nevah-doh County?
Oh my dear, really!!!
We must do better.

something well and truly broke in roughly 1970. It isn't like the history of slavery was different in 1950 vs 1980. Real tax rates didn't change too much (a common argument, there's a lot of handwaving about tax tables for rates no one actually paid):

I've read through that before but feel it's more editorial than sociology research. Of course if a Democrat published that now, they'd feel the full force of the current Left. Trying to explain the evolution of the US Left over the last 20 years would require more brainpower than I have in order to explain.

I can't say that the problems listed (slavery, unemployment) are much different before and after the cusp of those trends, and the trends have held pretty strongly through business cycles. I sincerely doubt that artificially providing jobs would do much to either draw in ethnic differences in result or push those numbers back to 1950 levels.

My gut feeling says that some undefined cause crept in in the late 1960's, early 1970's. Crop circles, God punishing the US for sinning, alien abductions, Putin at age 20 pulling strings, maybe the Summer of Looove kicked it off. Maybe there's no cause.

Now HOW MANY appartment complexes do we have around here?
There is your "low income" housing. Now... To get those welfare recipients off the dole and back to getting up in the morning.
Even Mc D's is paying 15 bucks an hour.
"O" and his free lunch days are gone. Get off your ass and get to work dead beats.

Don't look now but the FUE is up and on a tirade about Ghiddoti (misspelled to give Jeff something to huff about). Apparently, we just don't get the beauty of gutting the local comprehensive high schools and pouring the creme into Sierra College via the "Early College High School" route plowed by Bill and Melinda Gates, meant for kids who are not well served and probably not going to college otherwise.

That's 44 fewer kids in the 11th grade who would he at grade level at NU or BR high schools.

As we have come to expect from the corrupt entertainment media, no one dares suggest that the omission of the planting of the American flag might have had something to do with the box office failure, but of course it did…
To begin with, to put it as simply as possible, I think the American people are just tired of this shit, tired of Hollywood celebrating every culture in the world while denigrating ours. Hollywood enjoys the best of America — wealth, fame, personal freedom, artistic freedom — they are the freest and most spoiled culture in the history of the world, and still they shit all over of us — and we are sick of it.

I thought you said you were not going to stand by your man like the Tammy Wynett's song?

Hillary Clinton vehemently denied in a recent interview that her husband’s extramarital affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky was an abuse of power and added that former President Bill Clinton was right not to resign amid a scandal that led to his impeachment on perjury and obstruction charges.
“Absolutely not,” the former first lady said during a CBS "Sunday Morning" interview when asked if Bill Clinton should have stepped down.

A majority of those respondents in the “exhausted majority” believe political correctness is a problem. Of those surveyed, 80 percent of respondents answered in the affirmative that “political correctness is a problem in our country.”

When breaking the results down by race, 79 percent of white respondents believe that political correctness is a national problem. Eighty-two percent of Asians believe political correctness is a problem; 87 percent of Hispanics believe it’s a problem, and 88 percent of American Indians believe it’s an issue, too.

The report noted that African-Americans are most likely to support political correctness, and 75 percent of African-American respondents reported that they oppose political correctness.

Biden's behavior is so notable that even left-leaning publications have called him out:

The Washington Post: “What are we going to do about Creepy Uncle Joe Biden?”
Daily Beast: “Dear Lord Would Joe Biden Be a Terrible Candidate for These Times”
Huffington Post: “Joe Biden 2020 Is A Terrible Idea In A Post-Weinstein America”
VICE: “Joe Biden Is the Last Person the Democrats Should Run in 2020”
Another issue that needs to be addressed with Biden is the allegations that he repeatedly got naked in front of female Secret Service agents who found his behavior to be highly offensive.

A Somali man whose deportation was thwarted when passengers on the aeroplane taking him out of the country began complaining is a convicted gang rapist linked to an Islamic State fighter.
29-year-old Yaqub Ahmed was about to be returned to Somalia via a commercial flight to Istanbul, Turkey, but around a dozen ‘social justice warrior’ passengers on the aeroplane became aware of his situation when he began groaning and wailing.

Time to get real folks, multi-family low-cost housing is not what the millennials are looking for if Nevada County wants to attract young people. Several years ago ERC invited urban planner Joel Kotkin to give an assessment. His message was build single-family homes with a yard, as the Millennials are tired of apartment living in urban squalor and they are looking for communities to raise their children in a safe place.

Unfortunately, no one was listening. According to Joel, build single-family starter homes on lots with a yard, and broadband and the Millennials will come an bring their jobs with them. The hitch is this scheme was the millennials are also looking for communities with good schools and Nevada County cannot make that hurdle, although testing is above the CA average, CA's average is 8th from the bottom. Average at the bottom of the pile is failing Nevada County students.

So we have a county with no housing of interest to Millennials, limited broadband, and crappy schools. This is reality folks, and it can be fixed, but who is going to provide the leadership? Who?

I'm always amused of the various proscriptions of our social betters.
You know the type. They come to us armed with a newly obtained scrap of paper from some 'prestigious' university. They usually haven't had to earn a dime in their entire life and couldn't fix a flat tire on a bicycle.
One of their on-going harangues is the insistence on stack and pack housing for the masses. A suburban home with a yard is so un-green and a waste of space! Further, they insist the proles really, really want to live in a concrete box 4 stories up.
If you spend the time to see how these good self-appointed overseers live, you might be startled to see them owning as much - if not more - real estate than the average suburban American.
As far as I'm concerned, a condo in the sky is just an elaborate jail cell.
Any time some one starts talking about 'needed' housing - just ask if they are putting up their own money. And just their own money.
That will answer the question.

Wouldn't you call this being a co-conspirator, not just the usual fake news?

Journalists spent last week rewriting history as it happened and denying the thuggery of left-wing protests. It was like watching a reality TV version of “1984.

President Trump helped get the show rolling when he called left-wing protesters “an angry mob” and Republicans and conservative groups picked up the term. It was repeated in several videos and in a key GOP commercial that highlighted scenes of violence.

The scenes in the commercial included: the rioting and arson that took place protesting President Trump’s inauguration; attacks on Trump campaign events; harassment of members of Congress; and protesters pounding on the Supreme Court doors to object to the Senate confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

This was all more than the media could stand and they spent the week trying to disprove reality.
The Washington Post ran one piece calling the idea of “the angry mob” a “myth.” Then it did just the opposite by publishing an opinion piece stating: “Why is the mob angry? Because Trump is ripping us apart with bigotry and hatred.” That piece blamed Trump for having “spent the past 18 months actively stoking civil tensions.”

The idea that there are no hard choices— that is, choices between competing goods— is religious and totalitarian because it assumes that all good things are fundamentally compatible. The conservative or classical liberal vision understands that life is unfair, that man is flawed, and that the only perfect society, the only real utopia, waits for us in the next life.
Liberal fascism differs from classical fascism in many ways. I don’t deny this. Indeed, it is central to my point. Fascisms differ from each other because they grow out of different soil. What unites them is their emotional or instinctual impulses, such as the quest for community, the urge to ‘get beyond’ politics, a faith in the perfectibility of man and the authority of experts, and an obsession with the aesthetics of youth, the cult of action, and the need for an all-powerful state to coordinate society at the national or global level. Most of all, they share the belief— what I call the totalitarian temptation— that with the right amount of tinkering we can realize the utopian dream of ‘creating a better world.’
——Jonah Goldberg from his book Liberal Facism (contained in this link),

Hahaha...This is too much! Speaking of affordable housing and hard choices...San Francisco's problem is too much! I realize I might have a warped sense of humor, but the following problem was created by the democratic leaders running San Francisco and our state. Now it's working citizens may have to pay a tax for poop removal from its sanctuary streets. I see why the Bible says that during civilization's decline it would be very trying to the patients of the saints.https://rightwingfolks.com/san-francisco-wants-to-solve-its-poop-problem-with-a-homelessness-tax/

Identity politics has engulfed the humanities and social sciences on American campuses; now it is taking over the hard sciences. The STEM fields—science, technology, engineering, and math—are under attack for being insufficiently “diverse.” The pressure to increase the representation of females, blacks, and Hispanics comes from the federal government, university administrators, and scientific societies themselves. That pressure is changing how science is taught and how scientific qualifications are evaluated. The results will be disastrous for scientific innovation and for American competitiveness.

Is it any wonder that the poor have trouble finding affordable housing?

The traditional response to this regulation-driven increase in housing costs has been to simply chase rising costs with higher subsidies. That is the approach currently championed by California senator and probable 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who has sponsored legislation that would provide a tax credit to subsidize rents for families earning as much as $125,000 per year whose housing costs exceed 30 percent of their income.

But instead of pursuing this costly policy that mostly redounds to the benefit of landlords, Carson has decided to go directly after the source of the problem. Specifically, he has let it be known that he intends to link federal housing funds to local officials’ willingness to reduce regulations that restrict affordable housing. He wants to ensure that if mayors and governors continue to pander to wealthy special interests by enacting barriers to housing construction, Washington will no longer bail them out.